There are different approaches players use to get recruited to play college baseball. Some wait to be discovered. Another group sends an email with a link to their video to every baseball coach with an email address. Others will pay a professional recruiting service to get recruited. And then there are those that take responsibility for getting themselves recruited by figuring out which colleges want them.
These players realize that not all colleges and teams are the same and are willing to spend time researching the differences. Players in this group only contact coaches after making sure they are a match for the team and the college. If you’re in this last group and looking for information on college baseball teams, you might find the following resources useful.
College Baseball Attendance Records
Since it’s baseball, the NCAA ranks teams by just about every imaginable statistic. The “Misc Reports” under rankings show college baseball home attendance leaders by year. In 2013, LSU lead D1 attendance with an average of 10,880 per game. Division 2 was led by the University of South Carolina Aiken averaging 512 in attendance. Marietta of Ohio, a D3 powerhouse, led in D3 attendance.
How to Find Attendance for a Specific School
I realize that athletes from other sports (hmmm, like football?) may find it important to play in front of crowds but I don’t think many baseball players ever develop that sort of habit in high school. But just in case you’re wondering, you can find out attendance at college games. Just go to the team’s website and find the schedule. For completed games, there should be a link to a summary which will have a box score or a direct link to the box score. The bottom of the box score should have the game start time and attendance.
One Stop Stats for NCAA Baseball
This NCAA page includes the link to the baseball attendance records mentioned in the beginning. You can look up where each team and player ranks in statistics by division. In 2013, the Staten Island Dolphins led D3 in walks allowed per nine innings while the Lander Bearcats topped the D2 rankings in home runs per game.
Learning About D3 Baseball
D3 is the NCAA division with the most teams but doesn’t seem to exist for most high school players and their families. It isn’t until the fall of their senior year when players realize they don’t have any scholarship offers that they start paying attention to D3 schools. If you’re looking to learn about D3 Baseball fast, visit D3 Baseball.com (they also have websites for football, basketball, hockey, and a general category) . After a little research, you might realize that D3 isn’t the end of the world.
Finances
The Equity in Athletics Data Analysis Cutting Tool provides information on college athletic spending. Unfortunately, it isn’t going to tell you how many baseball scholarships there are or for how much. It will give you the number of participants on the varsity teams, the number of paid coaching staff, and expenses by team.
